The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for fleet management. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods for graphically tracking the location and status of mobile transmitter units.
In the fleet management business, knowledge of the status and location of a fleet of vehicles, carrying mobile transmitter units, is a powerful tool for a fleet manager and fleet drivers. By quickly being able to determine the location of the fleet, the fleet manager is able to make informed and efficient time critical decisions, and fleet drivers are able to efficiently determine their position.
Various navigational systems, including the LORAN system, the Global Positioning System (GPS), and others, have been used to determine the locations of vehicles in the fleet, typically in terms of longitude and latitude. By installing mobile navigational systems and mobile transmitter units into such vehicles, fleet drivers are able to determine their position within a geographic area and the fleet manager is able to receive updated positions of fleet vehicles.
Typical fleet management systems have required the fleet manager to "manage" information between multiple computers and display screens. For example, on a first computer, fleet management software provides the fleet manager with information regarding types of vehicles in the fleet, cargo, drivers, and jobs assigned to the vehicles, the job schedule etc. Next, on a second computer, mapping software provides the fleet manager with a graphic representation illustrating the geographic position of the fleet vehicles. Such a scenario is sufficient for the fleet manager if minor changes, modifications, etc. are needed for the fleet throughout the day, however this is not the typical case. In a more typical situation, the fleet manager has to contend with scheduling changes due to broken-down vehicles, traffic jams, rush jobs, cancellations, etc. Because of these changes, the fleet manager must constantly refer back-and-forth between screens in order to dynamically manage the fleet, for example re-assigning jobs, re-routing vehicles, adding jobs, etc.
FIG. 1 illustrates one of the first fleet management systems that provided enhanced graphical displays to the fleet manager. FIG. 1 includes a fleet management system 10 including a mobile position block 20, a display system 30, and a fleet mobile data suite 40. Display system 30 includes a raster database 50, a raster utility library 60, a vector database 70, a vector utility library 80, a mobile information data process (MID) 90, a Fleet Process 100, and a display 110.
In operation, positional information is first obtained from fleet mobile data suite 40. Typically fleet mobile data suite 40 includes a plurality of fleet vehicles, each including a navigational system, described above, in addition to a radio transceiver for sending (and receiving) data to mobile position block 20. In response to the data, mobile position block 20 processes the data, identifies the vehicles corresponding to the data, and passes the data to display system 30.
Upon receipt of the data from mobile position block 20, MID process 90 uses vector utility library 80 to access vector data from vector database 70. Fleet process 100 receives the data from mobile position block 20 and uses raster utility library 60 to retrieve an image of a map from raster database 50. Fleet process 100 also receives the data from MID process 90, and then displays the map and the vector information of display 110.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical output display produced by one embodiment of the system in FIG. 1. The image 130 is typically displayed on a raster-scan display screen and can include a map portion 140 and a vector data portion 150. Map portion 140 includes an image of a geographical area, typically from the raster database or alternatively the vector database, and includes a number of icons 160 representing vehicle location. Vector data portion 150 includes data from the vector data base including present street location of the vehicle, closest-cross section streets, destination information, etc. As illustrated, vector data portion 150 also includes information regarding the operator, type of vehicle, status, etc. of vehicle in text form.
Map portion 140 and vector data portion 150 may be simultaneously displayed, may be alternatively displayed, may be displayed in different computer windows on the display, etc. Further information regarding the system in FIG. 1 can be found in co-pending application Ser. No. 08/443,062, filed May 17, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,122, issued Jun. 3, 1997 described above.
Further improvements to fleet management apparatus and methods providing enhanced graphical feedback of the status of a fleet, to a fleet manager and to fleet drivers will enhance efficiency.